FCC dumps controversial media study

The Federal Communications Commission is pulling the plug on a controversial survey of TV newsroom activities that sparked a firestorm of criticism from Republicans.

“The FCC will not move forward with the Critical Information Needs study,” an FCC spokesman said Friday. “The Commission will reassess the best way to fulfill its obligation to Congress to identify barriers to entry into the communications marketplace faced by entrepreneurs and other small businesses.”

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The study was to start this spring with a pilot test in Columbia, S.C., and it included questions about how TV stations determine what news stories to cover. It also sought insight into debates between journalists and management over news coverage.

Conservatives, including GOP FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, seized on the issue, elevating it into a larger political controversy. Pai penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal blasting the survey and saying the government had no place in newsrooms.

Canceling the study was the right thing to do, Pai said in a statement Friday.

“In our country, the government does not tell the people what information they need. Instead, news outlets and the American public decide that for themselves,” he said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to identify and remove actual barriers to entry into the communications industry. This newsroom study was a distraction from that important goal.”

The issue had also drawn the attention of key lawmakers. House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) pledged to introduce a bill that would “eradicate” the study.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler earlier agreed to take out the newsroom questions and rework the study. But now the agency is scrapping it entirely.

“This clearly became a distraction Chairman Wheeler did not need at a time when the agency has its hands full with upcoming spectrum auctions, the IP transition, Comcast-Time Warner Cable and other pressing matters,” said Jeff Silva, senior policy director at Medley Global Advisors. “Whatever the reasons, pulling the plug on the study was the smart thing to do.”

The survey was meant to study how and if the media are meeting the public’s “critical information needs” on subjects like public health, politics, transportation and the environment. The FCC says the study is supposed to determine whether there are barriers to entry in media markets — something on which the agency is required to report to Congress.